SPORTS

Top 14 teams for Raghubir tourney
Our Sports Reporter

Organising secretary of the tournament V K Baweja said over Rs 1 lakh will be at stake in prize money. There will also be ‘man of the match’, ‘man of the tournament’, ‘best batsman’ and ‘best bowler’ awards. All the matches will be 40 overs a side.

Sonnet beat Patel Nagar

Sonnet Club defeated Patel Nagar Gymkhana by ten wickets in a DDCA Under-15 Cricket Tournament at the Venkateshwara College ground.

Scores: Patel Nagar: 51 all out in 19 overs (Sandeep Kumar 15, Sahil Kher 4 for 8, Ayush Tanwar 3 for 3). Sonnet: 53 for no loss in 9.5 overs (Prateek Suneja 25 n o, Ayush Tanwar 18 n o).

Gush Club beat Delhi Public School, R K Puram by 34 runs at the Gyan Bharti School ground.

Scores: Gush Club: 268 for 4 in 45 overs (Naman Khanna 115, Prateek Pawar 72 n o, Tejeshwari Yadav 2 for 68). DPS, R K Puram: 234 all out in 44.4 overs (Tejeshwar Yadav 119, Ajay Chauhan 3 for 51, TCA Jayant 2 for 67).

K N Colts beat Pelican by 126 runs at the Bharat Nagar ground. Scores: K N Colts: 240 for 4 in 45 overs (Tanuj Gupta 109 n o, Pradeep Yadav 75, Robin Singh 2 for 65). Pelican Club: 114 all out in 30.3 overs (Pradeep Rawat 26, Rahul Bhardwaj 4 for 24, Rahul Sharma 3 for 22).

Finally, BCCI thinks of Rajinder Goel
A. Gulati

Rohtak, May 20
Left arm leg spinner Rajinder Goel, who had been denied the privilege of representing India, in spite of two and a half decades of fruitful innings on domestic front, has finally been able to get recognition from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Surprisingly, this time also the factor responsible for earning him recognition is not the laudable work rendered to the game by a man, who is the highest wicket taker in Ranji Trophy, but the unsatisfactory performance by a bunch of spinners operating on the cricket horizon. Goel has been placed on the spinners’ panel recently constituted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The panel, comprising stalwarts of this great art, has been set up to improve the standard of spin bowling in the country.

Talking to the NCR Tribune here today, ‘Mr Accurate’ himself confirmed having received the formal invitation from BCCI to attend the first session of the panel to be held at Kolkata on May 30. According to information available, besides Rajinder Goel, the elite panel comprises distinguished spinners, namely Bapu Nadkarni, Bishan Singh Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, B. S. Chandershekhar, S.Venkatraghvon, V. V.Kumar, Padmakar Shivalkar, Shivlal Yadav, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Anil Kumble.

Another spinner, Padmakar Shivalkar, who also could not don India colours, despite impressive performance in domestic cricket, Rajinder Goel is being considered as the most appropriate choice, as he possess rich experience of bowling on domestic tracks on which most of the Test aspirants learn the basics of the trade and shape their career.

Born on February 6, 1940, in Narwana town of United Punjab, Rajinder Goel played his first Ranji Trophy game for South Punjab in 1958-59. Subsequently, he represented Delhi from 1963 to 1972, before finally shifting to his home state Haryana, till his retirement in 1984-85 to finish his first class cricket career with 640 wickets at 17.15, a record, which is unlikely to be broken. Goel took 5 wickets in an innings for 53 times and 10 wickets in match on 16 occasions in his distinguished domestic cricket career. He produced several memorable spells in his distinguished career. He bagged 6 wickets for 6 runs against Punjab while playing for South Punjab and on another occasion he took seven wickets for 3 runs for Haryana against Jammu and Kashmir. Goel also played 16 Duleep Trophy matches and took 70 wickets, besides playing some first class games against visiting teams from abroad. He played as professional for Blackpool Cricket Club, Central Lancashire in 1975. But, all his achievements could earn him only a place in the unofficial Test match, which he played for India against Sri Lanka (erstwhile Ceylon), in 1965. The presence of Bishan Singh Bedi, who had established himself as a good spinner in that era, put paid to Goel’s aspirations. Unfortunately, he had to return from the threshold of a Test after being called for the Banglore Test against Clive Llyod’s team in 1974-75, in a Test where Bedi was not playing. But on the eve of the match, Goel’s name was found missing from the final team.

The best thing, the chairman of the Haryana Cricket Selection Committee and former chairman of the national junior selection committee, Goel has earned so far from cricket is the respect of his fellow cricketers in return to his gamesmanship, behaviour and simplicity on and off the field.

Even legendary Sunil Gavaskar has considered him as one of his 31 idols, whom he has contributed a chapter each in his book ‘Idols’. Goel’s inclusion in the BCCI’s spinners’ panel seems to be a consolation for the man of his calibre, who devoted 27 years to the Indian cricket without donning the national colours.

ONGC down FCI, enter semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, May 20
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) trounced Food Corporation of India (FCI) by five wickets to enter the semi-final of the Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Khalsa College ground. ONGC will take on Collage Group in the first semi-final on Wednesday while Sonnet will clash against Lal Bahadur Shastri Club in the second semi-final on Thursday. The final will be played on May 25.

Scores: FCI: 203 all out in 39.4 overs (Rajinder Bisht 46, 6x4, 59b; Satyender Yadav 13, 3x4, 10b; Sanjeev Kohli 10, Damanjeet Singh 25, 1x4, 38b; Akash Malhotra 14, 28b; Pankaj Thakur 36, 2x4, 1x6, 35b; Mrinal Saini 30, 2x4, 32b; Rahul Sanghvi 3 for 51, Rajiv Rathore 3 for 24; Sarandeep Singh 3 for 45).

ONGC: 204 for 5 in 36.4 overs (Manoj Mudgil 37, 7x4, 36b; Radhey Sham Gupta 23,4x4, 23b; Gagan Khoda 10, Gautam Wadhera 26, 1x4, 55b; Sunil Joshi 53 n o, 2x4, 1x6, Rajiv Rathore 35 n o, 4x4, 26b; Iresh Saxena 2 for 22, Akash Malhotra 2 for 33).

Adventure award for Vijaypat Singhania
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, May 20
Industrialist and microlight aircraft flying champion Vijaypat Singhania has been conferred with the ‘Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2001’ for Lifetime Achievement by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee presented the award to Mr Singhania at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on May 20.

Mr Vijaypat Singhania, chairman emeritus of Raymond Limited, has been an avid aviator for over four decades with a total flying experience of 5000 hours. His biggest achievement has been the world record-setting solo flight in a microlight aircraft named ‘The Indian Post’ from the United Kingdom to India in August/September 1988. This singular feat earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. He won the first international ‘Round the World Air Race’ in 1994, starting and ending in Montreal (Canada) after a 24-day odyssey covering 34,000km across several countries.

TVS Racing reigns supreme
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, May 20
TVS Racing emerged victorious in the Gulf Dirt Track Challenge Autocross Championship held at Mangalore. TVS Racing participated in eight events, out of which they won first place in six.

In a thrilling race in Group A upto 250CC, Vijayakumar of Team TVS Racing, riding the newly launched TVS 250X, won the first three categories while TVS Racing’s Jinan finished first in Group B two-stroke 150CC and four-stroke 80-110CC categories. H K Prasad came first in Group D up to 180CC. Vijayakumar won the best rider prize for his outstanding performance. His team TVS Racing came second and third in Group D two-stroke up to 150CC and Group B 2-strokee up to 150CC.

Competitions in full swing in T Ao-Doner Soccer
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, May 20
Competitions have gained momentum in the Dr T Ao-Doner Football Tournament for the North East Region, which was inaugurated by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at Guwahati on May 17.

The tournament is meant to give competition exposure to players from the North East region, which is a goldmine for football talent.

Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Sports Authority of India (SAI) Red and SAI Blue teams are participating in the tournament.

Union Minister for the North East Region Dr C P Thakur will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony on May 30.

Ambuja Cup Soccer

Ambuja Club beat Institute B 2-1 in the third Ambuja Cup Five-a-Side Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium on Tuesday. Aslam and Jagga Ram scored for the winners while Rajan reduced the margin for the losers.

Amar Jyoti beat Institute A 5-2. Madan Lal (2), Rajan (2) and Madan Aggarwal were the scorers of Amar Jyoti while Raju and Mahesh scored for the losers.

Cricket academy at CRPF School

New Delhi, May 20
A cricket academy will start functioning at the Central Reserve Police Force Public School ground, Sector 16, Rohini from May 24. Detailed information can be had from the school from Wednesday to Friday from 4 pm to 6 pm. OSR

ADMINISTRATION

Shake-up in police brass
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 20
There was reshuffle in the Delhi Police with transfer and posting of senior officers. Joint Commissioner of Police (Armed Battalion) has been posted as Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence). He will be responsible for Special Branch, Riot Cell, Armed Police and Training. Besides, R.P. Singh has been posted as Joint Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), S.B. Deol as Joint Commissioner of Police (Armed). Mr Deol has earlier worked with the National Security Guards. Apart from this, Qamar Ahmed has been posted as Joint Commissioner of Police (Provisions and Logistics) and P.Kamraj will look after the affairs of the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), a press release said.